The ViE Awards honour the efforts, accomplishments, and positive contributions of companies and individuals in the vaccine industry.

Vaxxas and its investment syndicate, led by One Ventures, with co-investors Healthcare Ventures, Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) and Brandon Capital Partners, scored 40 percent of the votes from the international vaccine community as well as the judging panel’s ultimate endorsement.

UniQuest Managing Director, David Henderson, said the award added to an impressive list of achievements for the emerging University of Queensland vaccine development start-up company.

“We congratulate the Vaxxas team on such a high-profile acknowledgement from the global vaccine industry,” Mr Henderson said.

“Vaxxas was only launched last August, following the A$15 million investment from a syndicate of Australian and international venture capital funds. The investment was one of Australia’s largest first round start-up investments, the first investment for OneVentures, Brandon Capital and the MRCF in Queensland, and the first investment for Healthcare Ventures in Australia.”

UniQuest supported the Nanopatch technology’s commercialisation with patent protection and marketing, leading to negotiations with the investment syndicate.

“Recognition at this stage along a project’s commercialisation pathway highlights the value Australian university-based innovations are contributing to global health care,” Mr Henderson said.

The criteria met by the Vaxxas nomination to win the award included the innovative and unique aspects of the deal structure; the calibre of the parties involved and their respective responsibilities; the size of the investee’s target market(s); the potential to address strongly an unmet clinical need; and the impact the investors have made on the ability to advance clinical and economic objectives.

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UniQuest Pty Limited

Established by The University of Queensland in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognised as one of Australia’s largest and most successful university commercialisation groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. From an intellectual property portfolio of 1,500+ patents it has created over 70 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised more than $450 million to take university technologies to market. Annual sales of products using UQ technology and licensed by UniQuest are running at $3 billion. UniQuest now commercialises innovations developed at The University of Queensland and its commercialisation partner institutions: the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, Mater Medical Research Institute, and Queensland Health. UniQuest also provides access to an expansive and exclusive network of independent academics to tailor a consulting or project R&D solution to meet the diverse needs of industry and government, facilitating some 500 consulting, expert opinion, testing, and contract research services each year. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance recognised for excellence in technical leadership, management and research. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented more than 400 projects in 60+ countries throughout the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. Leanne WyvillP: +61 7 3365 4037M: +61 409 767 199W:www.uniquest.com.au

Keywords

Biotechnology Venture capital Investment University Research Other Research commercialisation